California debates future of corrections system

SACRAMENTO, Calif. 
Dueling arguments filed in federal court late Monday mark the latest battle in a long-running dispute over California prison crowding that once reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gov. Jerry Brown's administration asked federal judges to modify their order capping the number of inmates that can be held in state prisons. The state wants to house nearly 6,000 more prisoners than is allowed by the judges.

Administration officials warn that if the request is rejected, potentially dangerous felons would have to be released early. They planned to discuss their response to the judges during a Tuesday news conference.

"Any further federally ordered reduction of the California prison population is unnecessary and a threat to public safety," Jeffrey Beard, the new secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The cap was imposed in 2009 after federal judges blamed crowding for causing conditions so dismal that they violated inmates' constitutional rights and resulted in the death of an average of one inmate each week due to neglect or poor care. The judges gave the state until June to reduce the population of California's 33 adult prisons by about 33,000 inmates, to a total of 110,000 inmates.

The decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011, and so far, the federal judges have said they will not consider raising the cap. They could, however, extend the deadline for lowering the inmate population from June until December.

Beard noted that the state has reduced its prison population by about 43,000 inmates since 2006 while improving its treatment of mentally and physically ill inmates. State officials say California's less serious offenders already are going to county jails under a 14-month old law that sends only serious, violent and sexual offenders to state prisons. That makes it more difficult to identify remaining criminals who could be safely released.

"Instead of ordering the early release of potentially thousands of serious and violent felons, it is hoped that the federal court will recognize that we are now providing a constitutional level of care, and therefore an arbitrary population cap is unwarranted," said Beard, who became secretary last month after previously heading Pennsylvania's prison system.

Attorneys representing inmates argued in their own court filing that the state still fails to provide proper care and could release more prisoners without endangering the public.

"Incarceration is the most expensive of all the options for taking care of people in the criminal justice system," said Michael Bien, one of the lead attorneys for inmates.

It would be cheaper and more effective to funnel many criminals into drug or mental health treatment programs than into prison, he said.

Moreover, more inmates already behind bars could be safely released after completing drug, vocational, educational or other rehabilitation programs that would reduce their likelihood of committing new crimes, he said.